Fellowship programs

In designing the fellowship program at Wayne State University, particular attention was paid to ensure that those skills most important to a practicing clinical scientist would be developed. The fellowship program integrates classroom training, practical clinical experience, hands-on laboratory instruction and research design. Research participation is the major emphasis of the fellow's activities. Over the course of the two-year program, the fellow is responsible for developing 2-3 research proposals for which the fellow will act as the primary investigator. The fellow also actively collaborates (co-investigator) with the preceptor, other fellows and investigators outside the department in the design and implementation of several (3-4) research proposals both laboratory and clinically based. In developing the protocol, the fellow is responsible for hypothesis formation, as well as the development and writing of appropriate methodology and statistical analysis required testing the given hypothesis. Each fellow is responsible for the development or direction of at least one clinical protocol (patient or healthy volunteers) requiring human investigation approval. Responsibilities include preparing the HIC application and human consent form as well as maintaining the appropriate study record keeping and HIC communication files.

The fellow is responsible for the writing and submission of their research results for national and/or international presentations in the form of platform and/or poster presentations. Fellows are also responsible for writing and submitting the results of their research to an appropriate peer-reviewed journal for publication.

Fellowship Site

The fellowship site is located at College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences at Wayne State University and at the Detroit Medical Center. The Detroit Medical Center is made up of 8 distinct hospitals. Six of the hospitals are located in a four-city block area in downtown Detroit. All hospitals are major teaching facilities for the health sciences at Wayne State University. Detroit Receiving Hospital specializes in trauma and critical care. Medical specialties include internal medicine, critical care, cardiology, and surgery, including a regional burn center and spinal cord injury unit. There is a formal Infectious Diseases consult service for which the preceptor has an established Pharm.D. clerkship program and an infectious diseases residency program. The hospital is also affiliated with a large outpatient clinic known as the University Health Center that is physically joined to Detroit Receiving Hospital. We have and are currently conducting and collaborating on both inpatient and outpatient antibiotic studies. Patient beds are available by arrangement with the hospital administration for healthy volunteer studies. We have also conducted in-house healthy volunteer antibiotic pharmacokinetic, drug interaction and toxicity studies. In addition, the preceptor and fellows have access to patients at all affiliated Wayne State University teaching hospitals.

Required Coursework Offered by the College of Pharmacy at Wayne State University

Coursework is an important component of the fellowship training and consists of several important graduate courses spread out during the fellowship program. These courses are offered by the Medical School at Wayne State University and are at no cost to fellows enrolled in the fellowship training programs. Fellows with previous graduate degrees or coursework that cover these areas can option out of the required classes.

Biomedical Statistics I, CME 6010 (3 credits)

Biomedical Statistics II, CME 6020 (3 credits)

In addition, graduate-level courses are offered at the university in immunology, molecular biology, epidemiology and other related fields. These courses are accessible as needed for the fellow and are offered free of charge with transferable graduate credits. Graduate Certificate Programs are available in Public Health/Epidemiology and Translational Research. Fellows can also take a course in radiation materials and safety certifying them to handle radioactive materials often used in our drug assay procedures.

* Applicants with prior equivalent graduate coursework may be excused from the above-required coursework.

Medical Libraries

Wayne State University and the affiliated hospitals of the Detroit Medical Center have fully staffed medical libraries within walking distance from the fellowship site. Wayne State University's Shiffmann Medical Library is the largest medical library in the state, servicing the entire Southeastern Michigan area. This facility is located adjacent to Detroit Receiving Hospital. In addition, the department of pharmacy's drug information facility has a large collection of biomedical journals and textbooks and routinely performs computer Medline searches.

Computer Facilities

Each fellow has an Apple or comparable PC computer in the fellow-suite. Each computer is on line with the University's Internet connection and the hospital's computerized LAN system and is hard-wired or wireless connections. In addition, laptop (computer notebooks) are available for fellow use. Software available to the fellow from their personal computer or from the local area network within the department of pharmacy includes: pharmacokinetic modeling programs (PC-Nonlin, PK Analyst, etc., Crystal Ball), Fortran coupler, Adapt5 PK software, graphic programs including Sigmaplot 11.0, and Power Point for Windows, Spread Sheet analysis programs (Excel), word processing (Microsoft Word), and statistical analysis programs (SPSS v25.0)

The fellow learns grantsmanship primarily through grant writing workshops sponsored by Wayne State University, by example from the preceptor, successful faculty members of the College of Pharmacy and School of Medicine, and from investigators within the Division of Infectious Diseases. The fellow participates in each grant submission, including the preparation of grant applications, protocol development, funding source identification, and budget development, including university or institution overhead requirements. Fellows gain experience in identifying appropriate grant funding agencies from grant writing workshops and discussions with the preceptor during daily and weekly research meetings, by example (preceptor, other faculty members) and by circulation of Wayne State University postings of potential grant funding agencies. Funding agencies are discussed as part of each fellow's protocol development.

Laboratory and Technical Skills

The fellow learns grantsmanship primarily through grant writing workshops sponsored by Wayne State University, by example from the preceptor, successful faculty members of the College of Pharmacy and School of Medicine, and from investigators within the Division of Infectious Diseases. The fellow participates in each grant submission, including the preparation of grant applications, protocol development, funding source identification, and budget development, including university or institution overhead requirements. Fellows gain experience in identifying appropriate grant funding agencies from grant writing workshops and discussions with the preceptor during daily and weekly research meetings, by example (preceptor, other faculty members) and by circulation of Wayne State University postings of potential grant funding agencies. Funding agencies are discussed as part of each fellow's protocol development.

Antimicrobial Clinical Trials

Fellows gain experience from ongoing phase II, III, and IV antimicrobial clinical trials that we participate in at the Detroit Medical Center. The fellows are involved with patient enrollment, including obtaining consent, completing study case reports, and meeting with pharmaceutical study monitors, co-investigators, and research nurse practitioners. The fellows will also gain experience in directing the clinical research of pharmacy residents and staff and will be responsible for the preparation and execution of a clinical protocol.

Preparation and Submission of Abstracts, Manuscripts and Formal Presentations

The fellow is responsible, as previously stated, for writing the results of their studies, and submitting and presenting the results in the form of abstracts and platform presentations at national and international peer-reviewed scientific meetings. The fellow is also responsible for writing and submitting the research in the form of a manuscript to a suitable peer-reviewed journal. The fellow learns this process from the preceptor and by example from and consultation with the collaborating research investigators. Examples of meetings at which the fellows from this program have presented research results include: American Society of Microbiology (ASM Microbe), European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID), ID-Week. In addition, the fellows present their research at the annual Wayne State University and University of Illinois Fellowship Forum. Examples of journals in which fellows have published include: Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, Clinical Infectious Diseases, Diagnostic Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Journal of Infectious Diseases, Infectious Diseases and Therapy and Journal of Clinical Microbiology, Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology.

Teaching and Academic Training

Fellows receive an instructor appointment to the College of Pharmacy at Wayne State University. Under the preceptor's direction, the fellows will learn all aspects of didactic and clerkship student instruction. Fellows will receive guidance for development of lecture outlines, handout material, audiovisual preparation and exam writing skills. Fellows will provide 1-2 lectures for Pharm.D. students enrolled in the Infectious Diseases Therapeutic Module PHA-4210. In addition, the fellows will be responsible for assisting with the precepting of Pharm.D. students on site for the Infectious Diseases Clerkship Course PPR-7130 and one on one for students electing to take the directed research course.

Length of Fellowship Program

The fellowship training program is 2-3 years in length. This program meets all requirements set forth by the American College of Clinical Pharmacy (ACCP). It is one of the first fellowship sites to receive formal ACCP approval (November, 1992, January 2005, October, 2010).